National Butterfly Center, 7/19/15

Today I joined Mike and Ginny for the NABA butterfly count at the National Butterfly Center.  The heat, lack of rain and an influx of dragonflies have really knocked down the number of butterflies.  But compared to last year at this time, there's still quite a bit of interesting stuff around.  This male Silver Emperor is a real knockout.

Luciano found this Mournful Duskywing which was our only one for the day.

I found this crescent which I showed to Mike and he IDed it as a Vesta Crescent.  I thought it was a female Pearl but after checking it out once I got home, I can see that Mike was right.

There's still a Two-barred Flasher hanging on in the ditch.

Mike interrupted my lunch with this Malachite and another Silver Emperor.

My last addition for the day was this Brown-banded Skipper.

I finished with 41 species for the day and I know Mike and Ginny had another half dozen or more that I missed.

• Giant Swallowtail 2
• Great Southern White 5
• Cloudless Sulphur 2
• Large Orange Sulphur 2
• Lyside Sulphur 8
• Little Yellow 1
• Mimosa Yellow 6
• Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak 4
• Dusky-blue Groundstreak 3
• Ceraunus Blue 1
• American Snout 1
• Gulf Fritillary 7
• Julia Heliconian 1
• Zebra Heliconian 2
• Mexican Fritillary 1
• Bordered Patch 15
• Crimson Patch 8
• Texan Crescent 2
• Pale-banded Crescent 1
• Vesta Crescent 1
• Phaon Crescent 8
• White Peacock 1
• Banded Peacock 2
• Malachite 1
• Tropical Leafwing 8
• Tawny Emperor 150
• Silver Emperor 2
• Queen 35
• Soldier 1
• White-striped Longtail 2
• Brown Longtail 8
• Two-barred Flasher 1
• Brown-banded Skipper 1
• Mournful Duskywing 1
• Tropical Checkered-Skipper 8
• Laviana White-Skipper 6
• Common Sootywing 1
• Fawn-spotted Skipper 4
• Southern Skipperling 3
• Whirlabout 1
• Eufala Skipper 2